348 HISTORY OF COMMON LAW 



international law of all peoples is made by all peoples from day to 

 day as a natural outgrowth of international relations in human 

 society. 



There must be something of a governmental character behind a 

 law, to give it form and stamp it with authority. It may have 

 authority from mere popular acceptance, but this stamp is needed 

 to give assurance that the people have accepted it. In every civilized 

 nation there is some form of judicial establishment to fulfill this 

 office. It does not make law. It does not, at least, own that it makes 

 it. But it declares what is law and what is not. 



The last year of the last century crowned its achievements by 

 providing such a judicial establishment for all nations. That common 

 law of all, that jus gentium, which is also a jus inter gentes, has now 

 a spokesman, and a record office. 



Elsewhere in the series of Congresses of which this Exposition 

 has been made the occasion, the institution of The Hague Tribunal, 

 and the series of treaties providing for the reference to it of many 

 of the minor controversies between nations, which have since been 

 negotiated, will have fitting mention. . It is enough here to call at- 

 tention to it as the last, best outgrowth of human society at large, 

 in its progress in the arts of life the. true arts of true living. 



It looks to nothing less than the gradual formation of a common 

 law on one subject of common concern for all nations, a world- 

 law. 1 



The government of the Netherlands has also, of resent years, been 

 doing a great work, which must have broad results, toward ordering 

 the disposition before the ordinary tribunals of private controversies 

 arising out of a conflict between the laws of one country and those 

 of another. 



I have spoken of the history of every nation as the key to the 

 nature and meaning of its law. 



The field of comparative law is a wilderness to one who does not 

 study it in the light of the history of the different nations. That 

 history forbids us to hope for ultimate uniformity. It encourages us 

 to hope for ultimate agreement on rules by which a conflict of laws 

 operating on personal and private rights may be in most cases 

 avoided. This will be simply by the determination of which of 

 several rules shall govern under certain circumstances. 



The recent conferences on this subject at The Hague, beginning 

 with that of 1893 and ending with that of 1904, have approached 



1 The work of this court will be effectively supplemented by the princely 

 foundation for the Nobel Institute for the Study of International Law, in Norway. 

 This was formally opened at Christiania on February 12, 1904, and consists of 

 fifteen jurists forming a consultative tribunal, ready to give advice in matters 

 of international relation. 



